A problem associated with zero-mercury, zinc air batteries is that contamination of the components thereof can cause formation of hydrogen gas within the cell, which can, in turn, result in inferior cell performance. In particular, lubricants, adhesives, and other materials used during manufacturing of the anode cups can contaminate the surfaces thereof and cause excessive hydrogen formation in an assembled zero-mercury, zinc air cell. Hydrogen gassing within the cell adversely affects shelf life, open circuit voltage, and service maintenance of the cell. Accordingly, cleaning or decontamination of the anode cup is regarded as an essential step in the production of zero-mercury, zinc air cells. The accepted method of cleaning the anode cups for zero-mercury, zinc air cell is to use an organic degreasing solvent such as trichloroethylene. Organic degreasing solvents are generally volatile and environmentally unfriendly. Further, the organic degreasing solvents do not eliminate hydrogen gassing. In fact, in many cases, the solvent cleaned anode cups exhibit undesirably high levels of hydrogen gassing which result in inferior cell performance and a relatively short shelf life. In an attempt to further reduce the level of contamination on anode cup surfaces, solvent cleaning has been supplemented with plasma cleaning. However, plasma cleaning has not always reduced hydrogen gassing or provided improved cell performance. In fact, plasma cleaning has been found to often increase long term hydrogen gassing within the cell.